Rejected For My Curves. Desired By The War Alpha 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 21 - 챕터 30

The field went silent after Asher's challenge, every eye swinging toward me, waiting on an answer nobody had actually asked me for."Accepted," Ronan said, jaw tight, already squaring toward Asher."No," I said.Both of them turned toward me at once, matching confusion, breaking across their faces."Briar," Asher said. "This is for you.""I know exactly what it's for. That's the problem.""I don't understand.""You're standing on a battlefield, in front of two entire packs, offering to fight for the right to court me like I'm a prize sitting on a shelf waiting to be claimed by whichever of you wins.""That's not what this is.""It's exactly what this is. Call it whatever you want, but a challenge decides a winner, and I'm not something that gets won.""I fought for you tonight because I wanted to, not because I thought you were a prize.""There's a difference between fighting for me and fighting over me. You just did the second one."Ronan's jaw worked, something complicated crossing

"Your eyes did something last night."Wren didn't look up from the bread she was tearing into smaller and smaller pieces without eating any of it."I don't know what you're talking about.""Wren.""I was tired. Torchlight does strange things.""I know what I saw. Gold. Not brown. Gold, for half a second, right when you crossed the gate.""You imagined it.""I didn't imagine anything. Asher saw it too. Don't tell me you're going to convince both of us we're wrong.""Maybe you were both tired.""We weren't both tired in the same way at the same moment. Try again.""I don't have another explanation for you.""Try harder."She set the bread down finally, arms crossed in the exact defensive posture I remembered from every argument we'd ever had as kids, shoulders up, chin tucked, ready to deflect whatever came next."It's nothing.""It's nothing. I know what it looks like when someone's hiding something. I've been doing it my whole life.""Maybe I just need sleep.""Wren.""What do you wan

We were three steps from the gate when a Kade scout came jogging up, hand raised."Wait. There's a rider at the border. Masked. She says she needs to speak with Briar directly and refuses to explain herself to anyone else.""We don't have time for this," Asher said."She says it's urgent enough to be worth the delay.""Everyone says that.""This one didn't try to force her way past the sentries. She just waited."I hesitated, some instinct telling me not to dismiss it outright. "How many riders?""One. Alone. No escort is visible anywhere behind her."That gave me pause. "Bring her to the gate. Two minutes. That's all she gets.""Two minutes we don't have," Asher muttered, already moving toward the gate anyway.We reached the gate to find a lone figure on horseback, cloaked, hood pulled low despite the mild night. She dismounted slowly, hands visible, no weapon drawn."Show your face," Asher said, tension coiled in every line of his."I mean no harm. I'll show you, just give me a mome

My hands shook unfolding it, the first time all night my body had let the fear show instead of burying it under motion.The handwriting was Ysolde’s. I recognized it immediately from the oath recitation, tight and precise, every letter controlled the way everything about her seemed controlled.“What does it say,” Asher asked, close beside me now.I read it aloud, my voice flatter than I felt.“Your family was moved again three hours ago. You will not find them tonight, tomorrow, or any night soon after, unless I decide you should. Consider this a demonstration. I can move anything you care about beyond your reach, whenever I choose, however quietly I choose to do it. Tonight was a lesson, not a punishment. The next one may not be so gentle.”Silence dropped over the bare room.“A lesson,” I repeated, disbelief and fury tangling together in my chest. “She calls this a lesson.”“She’s telling you she can always reach further than you can,” Asher said quietly. “That’s not a threat about

The candle between us had burned low by the time Callum spread the last of the requisition logs across the table.“Here,” he said, tapping one entry. “This one’s the strangest. Weapons, medical supplies, and rations, all routed toward a location listed only as Site Seven. No designation on any official map.”“Site Seven. That means nothing to me.”“It means nothing to anyone. I checked every registry I have access to. It doesn’t correspond to any known rebellion hotspot, any border post, any garrison.”“Could it be a code name for somewhere that already has a real designation.”“I considered that. If it is, it’s a code I don’t have access to, and I have access to most of them.”“So it’s somewhere she doesn’t want documented.”“That’s my read on it too.”I leaned over the log, tracing the delivery dates with my finger. “These shipments started before the border battle. Before Briar even left for Kade territory.”“Weeks before.”“So whatever this is, it’s not a reaction to the rebellion